Australian gov't seeks to improve services for people from Chinese background

CANBERRA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has sought to improve accessibility to government services for people from Chinese background after the ABS' 2016 Census found that around 1 million Australians came from a Chinese background.

"To ensure that those from a Chinese background can easily access government services, the Department of Human Services (DHS) has more than 100 staff based around the country who are fluent in Chinese or Mandarin and are ready to help," Michael Keenan, Australia's minister for human services, said in a media release on Friday as Australia celebrates the Chinese Language Day.

"The department also produces a wide range of online resources such as translated fact sheets, podcasts and vodcasts which contain helpful information to assist people to access support," said the release.

The Chinese Language Day, which falls on April 20, is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) initiative aimed at "celebrating multilingualism and cultural diversity."

Mandarin is the second most spoken language in Australia after English with more than 600,000 residents regularly speaking it, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

According to data released on Wednesday by the ABS, China remained the biggest source of international students in Australia in 2017 and became the biggest source of international visitors to the country for the first time. Enditem